Job Analysis is the process of collecting, analysing and setting out information about the content of jobs to provide the basis for a job description and data for recruitment, training, job evaluation and performance management. Job analysis concentrates on what job holders are expected to do.

• Purpose of the job – Prepare or provide financial information.
• Content of the job – Task to be performed
• Accountabilities – deliverables.
• Performance Criteria – measurement of how you are on the job.
• Responsibilities – Decisions the employee is responsible for.
• Organisational Factors -Who to report to.
• Developmental Factors -Promotion paths and or career prospects.
• Environmental Factors -Working conditions, security and safety issues

The functional structure is centralised and produces a rigid framework for efficient management control. It is found in those private sector organisations that have outgrown the simple structure and in many parts of the public sector. This structure consists of a managing director (or equivalent title), very often in overall control, and a board of directors whose role is to oversee the organisation on behalf of the shareholders. The board makes the medium-term and long-term decisions for the organisation. Communication channels are short and vertical. Managers with specialist knowledge, such as accountancy, control specialist functional departments. The department is responsible for taking short-term operational decisions.

The rigidity of the functional structure means it can only function effectively where the organisation provides clearly-defined products or services to clearly-defined markets. This structure does not have the flexibility needed to deal with complexity. This is the weakness of the structure; it controls chaos which facilitates growth, but then finds diversity of product or service and market very difficult to cope with. With departments rigidly aligned, cross-functional team-working needed for diversification and innovation is very difficult.

The divisional structure deals with the complexity of different product or services and different markets. It is a decentralised structure. The various divisions are based on either product or geographical lines, which ever leads to greatest efficiency. Within the divisions there is a separate organisational structure. The simplified environment within the division usually means the functional structure is possible. The board of directors will only take the long-term strategic decisions. Divisional heads will be responsible for medium and short-term decisions. One of the consequences of the divisional structure is increased cost. This is partly alleviated through the sharing of central services such as human resource management, finance and legal services. This allows the organisation to operate centralised policies while maintaining the maximum amount of devolved activity.

The divisional structure can lead to some inefficiency, for example, divisions may find themselves in competition with each other. Each division will be able to account for its own income and expenditure. The head office will set targets and expect divisions to achieve these targets. Income from the divisions is usually aggregated to form the total income for the organisation. This means the divisions need to ask head office for funds and resources. The allocation of these funds can lead to interdivisional rivalry.

The matrix structure is a combination of two or more organisation structures. It is a hybrid structure because it combines functional organisation with project organisation. Therefore, it has the merits and demerits of these two structures. In s matrix organisation, the functional manager will have authority over the functional aspects of a job while the project manager will be responsible for the financial and physical resources which will be required to do the job.

Decisions in a matrix organisation are usually the best since they are made by experts. Again, the structure is very responsive to changes in the environment because it allows for quick decision making. A matrix structure deploys staff from different departments to work as a team and this serves as a source of belongingness and motivation.

On the other hand, the matrix structure requires a high degree of co-operation of employees who have been brought from different departments, without which performance may suffer. Another problem of the structure is that it increases management overhead costs. There is the potential for conflicting management directives which may be detrimental to organisational efficiency.

Ways in which the Public Sector complements the efforts of the Private Sector

• Provision of public goods to facilitate the operations of the private sector.
• Public Sector provides services for the public good. For example licences, permits etc. that facilitate the business of the Private Sector.
• Public Sector fees are relatively lower because they can take advantage of economies of scale to provide goods and services. The Private Sector benefits from the low fees charged.
• Borrowing by the Private Sector backed by governments guarantee is relatively cheaper.
• Public Sector operations can serve more people than the Private Sector. For example the provision of health and education services could be provided by the Public Sector to areas where the Private Sector would find unprofitable.

Characteristics of Public Sector that make them bureaucratic

• Accountability. Transactions have to necessarily go through too many authorisation and approval processes because public funds are used in running public organizations.
• The strictly impersonal nature of public organizations make decision making fatally slow.
• Constraints on public funds make it difficult for the Public Sector to provide critical services to the public. They have to wait to receive their budget allocations before services could be rendered.
• Services rendered by the Public Service is without the profit motive and so they end up being underfunded. This creates delays in service delivery.
• There are several levels of control, checks and authorisation requirements that results in delays in processing of transactions.

Overt aspects are the formal aspects of an organisation. These are financial
resources, products, custo mers, formal structure, technology, policies,
procedures and rules. These are overt because they are visible (even to
outsiders and new joiners), documented, controlled through formal
management processes and explicitly designed to support the mission of the
organisation.

Covert aspects are the behavioural aspects of culture. These include beliefs,
assumptions and attitudes. Others are informal communication patterns,
informal team processes, informal influence and leadership, political
behaviour and interpersonal relations. These are no t directly u n der the control
of management, not always supportive of the organisation s mission, and not
readily visible to outsiders or new joiners.

A company’s strong culture will have both positive and negative effects on
organisational performance. Positive influences include:

• Identity
  A strong culture provides employees with a sense of identity and belonging. This can be motivational and impact positively on staff retention.
• Communication
  Culture can facilitate good communication and coordination.
• Reduced differences
  Differences between people, groups and members of staff within Invest Africa will be reduced.
• Regulation
  A strong culture will regulate behaviours and norms. Dominant values and attitudes will be reinforced.
• Image
  A strong culture will reflect the philosophy of the founder or the dominant group. This will provide an image and identity to the company affecting the way it is perceived externally.
• Strategy
  This has the potential to differentiate Invest Africa from its competitors and could be the basis for developing a competitive advantage.
  A strong culture will directly impact on the strategy of the organisation and its ability to react to change. Negative influences of Invest Africa strong culture include:
• Inflexibility
  Strong cultures can be deeply ingrained and difficult to change.
• Blinkered
  It could create a blinkered view which may prevent Invest Africa from learning new skills or taking on new challenges.
• Inappropriate values
  If the culture of InvestAfrica is based on inappropriate values it could cause the performance of the organisation to deteriorate. The effectiveness can also be hindered if Invest Africa s strong culture does not have positive attributes in relation to stakeholders and change.
• Conflict
  Strong cultures have the potential to cause conflict when the organisation is in contact with another. This is of particular concern for InvestAfrica Company given that future developments may involve a merger with another company. If conflict does arise it will significantly reduce the likelihood of that merger being successful.
• Environment
  If InvestAfrica Company’s strong culture is not aligned with the environment in which it operates it is unlikely to succeed.

• Control accounts identify the ledger in which the errors have been made, and therefore make it easier for detection and correction of the errors.
• Control accounts provide an independent check on the entries in the sales ledger and purchases ledger. The balance on the sales ledger control account must equal the total of the balances from the customers’ account in the sales ledger, and the balance on the purchases ledger control account should equal the total on the balances from the supplier’s accounts in the purchases ledger.
• Division of duties helps in the prevention of fraud as the control account and the sales and purchases ledger are completed by different employees. It is usually a more senior member of staff who completes the control account.
• Control accounts allow the quick calculation of receivables and payables totals. This allows them to be used to provide the data for the final accounts.                                                                                                                                     (Any 2)

Roles that the new system may play in the company are:

• Planning future operations.
• Recording transactions.
• Performance measurement (comparing actual results against plans).
• To help senior management make decisions

Features of enterprise wide system

• Enterprise wide systems are designed to co ordinate all business functions,
  resources and information.
• It minimizes duplication of information.
• Under an enterprise wide system each business area is provided with a system
  that fulfils its needs . However each module shares a common database that is
  the basis of all the information within the organisation.

Testing should include:

• User acceptance testing to establish whether user acceptance criteria are met.
• Realistic tests re alistic data and environment.
• Contrived tests how the system copes with unusual and unexpected events.
• Volume tests ensure the system can cope with the expected number of
  transactions, and more.

Benefits of information systems based around a database include:

• Reduced data duplication/data redundancy. Having a centralised pool of data
  reduces the chance of data duplication and redundancy. For example, stock
  and customer information are held and maintained centrally.
• Provision of tailored reports. Databases should facilitate more flexible
  reporting. For example, procurement managers should be able to produce
  reports on slow moving products by different types of supplier.
• Ease of access to information for staff. Databases should ena ble staff to find
  data quickly (eg to answer customer queries).
• Reduced IT maintenance costs. As data is maintained centrally, maintenance
  (eg checking data accuracy, adding new types of data) should be an easier.
• Enhanced security.

Item (i): Accruals/Matching concept : The matching of receipts and payments within an accounting period . Adjustments have to be made regarding early and late transactions both at the start and at the end of the accounting period . GHS21,600 of unpaid salaries has to be accrued in order to get the correct value of salaries expenses for the financial year.

Item (iii): Business Entity concept: Only the transactions of the business should be recorded in the accounts of the business. The owner’s private holiday is not a business expense and must be shown as drawings which reduces the amount of capital the owner has invested in the business.
Item (v): The Prudence concept requires a business to understate, rather than overstate, profit. Writing off an irrecoverable debt is an example of this, as this will increase expenses and thus reduce net profit. This action will also reduce the value receivables and hence current assets in the statement of financial position

Capital Expenditure:
It is expenditure which results in the acquisition of fixed assets or an improvement in their earning capacity.

• Capital expenditure is not charged as an expense in the income statement at one go but rather a depreciation or amortization charge will usually be made to write off the capital expenditure gradually over time.
• Capital expenditure on fixed assets is the recognition of a fixed asset (e.g. vehicles, Land and Building) in the statement of financial position of the business.

Revenue Expenditure:
Is expenditure which is incurred for either:

• For the purpose of the trade/service of the business. This includes Selling & Distribution expenses, administration expenses and finance charges.
• To maintain the existing earning capacity on fixed Assets ( such as repair expenses).
• To ensure smooth running of the day to day activities of the company/Business.